ONlwSG

-bhal -[vɑɫ̪] (sometimes written -mheall as a result of folk etymology, as though it were the lenited form of SG meall ‘mound, hill’; usually -val in anglicised spellings) occurs as the final element in many Old Norse loan-names in Scottish Gaelic, e.g. SG Trialabhal [ˈt̪ʰɾiaɫ̪ə ̩vɑɫ̪] NB261238 < ON *Þrælafjall ‘(the) mountain of the slaves’, with gen. pl. of þræll m. ‘slave, thrall’ + fjall nt. ‘hill, mountain’ (cf. Oftedal 1954, 377).

With open SG [ɑ] /ɑ/ the result of shortening of an earlier long vowel: ON *Þrælafjall > EG *[ˈθɾeːl̪ə ˌfʲiɑɫ̪ ] > EG *[ˈθɾeːl̪ə ˌfʲɑːɫ̪ ] > SG Trialabhal [ˈt̪ʰɾiaɫ̪ə ˌvɑɫ] (Cox 2022, 117–18).

McDonald (2009, 353) notes the element’s occurrence in place-names discussed by MacBain (1895, 231), Taylor (1968, 126) and Fraser (1979, 22), and alludes to the Lewis place-name Buaileabhal discussed by Cox (1989, 6–7). While SG Buaileabhal [ˈb̥uələ ̩vɑɫ̪] NB199407 goes back to an Old Norse hill name in final -fjall, the first part of the name may indicate that EG búaile (SG buaile, s.v. bòl) ‘cow-house, byre; cattle-pen; (temporary) cattlefold, booley at times of summer pasturage’ (eDIL^˄) was borrowed by Norse speakers, at least locally, and used in the creation of Norse place-names, some at least of which were subsequently borrowed into Gaelic; cf. SG Buaileabhair [ˈb̥uələ ̩vəɾʲ] NB248467 < ON -varða f. ‘cairn; beacon’ (Cox 1992, 139; 2002a, 195) and SG Buaileabhig [ˈb̥uələ ̩viɡ̊ʲ] (?Lochs, Lewis) < ON -vík f. ‘bay’ (Oftedal 1980, 188; Cox 2002a, ibid.). Regardless, SG Buaileabhal is an Old Norse originated place-name, and one cannot infer from it, as McDonald seems to imply, that ON fjall was borrowed into Gaelic.